Little can be done to remedy the limited functionality of the Vibe’s roof rack. You can opt to have the body cladding painted, and we think you should, lest the salesperson try to talk you into a leftover 2001 Aztek. Two devices accomplish this: the ubiquitous gray Pontiac body cladding and a standard, nonremovable roof rack. We’d be inclined to say yes.Īs for its Toyota counterpart, much of the Vibe’s distinction is based on the notion that the Matrix has a sleek "street" look, while the Vibe is supposed to look tougher, more functional, like an SUV. The question to ask is if the good looks make up for the bad. Neither is as nicely proportioned as the Mazda Protegé5. Aesthetically, the Vibe fares about the same: From some angles, both cars look great from many they don’t. The Vibe has a 102.4-inch wheelbase, nearly the same as the Ford Focus though it’s a bit longer, wider and taller than its five-door Blue Oval competition. But it is a small, front-drive five-door with somewhat awkward styling. GM says the Vibe combines the "features of a sports car, sport wagon and SUV all at the same time." It frightens us to imagine such an automotive griffin this car is surely and thankfully not it. The two were co-developed by GM and Toyota, though neither their shared chassis nor identical powertrain has a Detroit lineage. As a consequence of the joint-venture arrangement, the Vibe has a fraternal twin in the Toyota Matrix (AW, Dec. The Vibe is not a complete departure from the Corolla, as it’s based on the new one but also borrows parts from the Celica bin. Instead it will be selling the Vibe, the Prizm’s replacement on the lines at NUMMI. In the ensuing 17 years, Toyota redesigned the Corolla three times and each time GM’s NUMMI version (the Nova name gave way to the Geo/Chevy Prizm) reigned as the best small car sold by The General.Ī new Corolla will debut in 2003, but GM will no longer have its own version. When it debuted, the Nova allowed Americans to buy an American car sold by an American dealership that was as well designed, well built and reliable as a Japanese car, this in an era when that wasn’t otherwise possible. (NUMMI), the landmark GM-Toyota joint-venture in Fremont, California. No, not that Nova-we’re talking about the Toyota Corolla Chevrolet dealers began selling in 1985, the one that was built at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. The new Matrix and Vibe have been engineered to accommodate a hybrid powertrain, which conceivably could come from either automaker, although GM's hybrid systems are geared to larger vehicles.The Pontiac Vibe is General Motors’ best new small car since the Chevy Nova. We'd have welcomed a turbocharged four-pot-perhaps the same 260-hp mill that adds more than a dash of dash to the Chevrolet HHR SS and would make a Vibe so equipped an excitement-division-worthy competitor to the Mazdaspeed 3 and Dodge Caliber SRT4. The automatic is standard with the larger mill, or customers can opt for a new five-speed auto with Driver Shift Control. A five-speed manual is standard, with an optional four-speed automatic with the base engine. The larger 2.4-liter engine has 158 hp and 162 lb-ft of torque, and has a 21/28 mpg estimated fuel rating with a manual. The base 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine now produces 132 hp and 128 lb-ft of torque, but remains fuel efficient with estimated fuel economy of 26/32 mpg in city/highway driving with a manual transmission. The new Vibe will continue to be offered with front- or all-wheel drive, and marks the return of the GT model to the lineup that was discontinued for the 2007 model year. The Matrix is built at a Canadian Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario. Word is that GM moved up Vibe production (at GM's joint-venture plant in Fremont, California) by a couple months to first-quarter 2008 to keep up with Matrix launch plans. What won't change is that the Vibe will continue to share its platform and certain powertrain combos with the 2009 Toyota Matrix that was unwrapped at October's Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas. The new model has a more conventional roofline yet still appears sporty. Also missing are the current generation's integrated roof rails, which effectively disguised the tall, flat roof and allowed stylists to present a more sloping roofline while preserving cargo space. Gone, thankfully, is all that cladding, which presumably was there to fool people into thinking the tall wagon was actually an SUV. What has changed for '09 includes every body panel-some a little, some a lot-to inject some much-needed flair into the Vibe's styling. This will be the second generation of the Vibe, which, along with its mechanical twin, the Toyota Matrix, first hit the road in 2002 as a 2003 model. Pontiac gives us much-needed detail on its all-new Vibe hatch/wagon/crossover, which is scheduled to debut at November's Los Angeles auto show.
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